Tonight, we are young / So let’s set the world on fire / We can burn brighter than the sun — “We Are Young” by fun.

If Sunday’s 54th annual Grammy Awards ceremony needs a theme song, “We Are Young” by the New York alternative-pop trio fun. should fit the bill almost perfectly.

At least it should when it comes to this annual awards show’s three most prestigious categories — Album, Record and Song of the Year — which have rarely before been dominated by so many fresh nominees, some with only one or two albums to their credit.

To cite one example, Frank Ocean, 25, and Mumford & Sons (whose leader, Marcus Mumford, is 26), have a field-leading six nominations each. To cite another, in the Album of the Year category, former White Stripes leader Jack White is, at 36, the oldest nominee. And, of the Best Pop Solo Performance contenders — a field that includes Adele, Rihanna, Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry and Carly Rae Jepsen — Perry and Clarkson are the senior nominees, at the suddenly prehistoric age of 28 and 30, respectively.

“New blood is the future, and new and young artists are the ones who excite and inspire new and young fans,” said Neil Portnow, the president and CEO of the Recording Academy, under whose auspices the Grammys are presented.

“What’s great about our community is there is plenty of room at the inn. There’s room for as many wonderful, exciting new artists as we can find. And, frankly, the more the better.”

Last year’s Grammys telecast drew a U.S. viewing audience of nearly 40 million, more than 500,000 of them in San Diego. That’s a nearly 14 million jump from 2011, making it the second-most-watched edition of this awards show ever. (It was topped only by Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”-fueled sweep in 1984). Moreover, the record 13 million social media comments generated by the 2012 Grammys telecast surpassed that of last year’s Super Bowl.

That was due in part to last year’s generations-leaping lineup, which featured everyone from Paul McCartney and Nicki Minaj to Bruce Springsteen and Deadmau5. But Portnow also deserves a fair share of the credit.

In the decade that he has guided the nonprofit Recording Academy, a year-round arts organization, he’s helped transform the Grammys from being a conservative event that tended to showcase legendary artists over young ones and too often ignored daring or unconventional performers in favor of safe, predictable ones. He has also helped the Grammys embrace social media in a very big way, as well as expand and diversify the Recording Academy’s membership of music business professionals. (That number now stands at about 20,000, including 12,000 voting members.)

The results, as evidenced by last year’s flood of tweets and Arcade Fire’s unexpected 2011 Album of the Year victory, suggest the Grammys are finally becoming hip and cool.

“Well, yeah, and that’s clearly by design,” Portnow said. “Because, certainly, as an academy — and as the institution that is looked to to sort of define excellence in any given year, and over people’s lifetimes — we want to get it right. The Grammys have become the seal of approval, not only for artists, but for music fans, from the most dedicated to most casual. It’s the place to see and hear what’s most important in music. It’s also unpredictable, because it’s live and anything can happen.”